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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
The most memorable thing I learned from this book was that pimps get better results than realtors do.
Enjoyable read. I enjoy listening to the Freakonomics podcast and the stories from this book pop up there from time to time.
I had the special illustrated edition, considering the book is broken down in short lighthearted anecdotes, I was surprised by how long it took me to finish the book. By the end though, I realized it was the textbook-y nature of the edition which made it difficult for me.
In this second book from Levitt and Dubner, you will uncover more about behavioral economics in the world today. Setup in the same fashion, this follows with the same premise that people respond to incentives. It is filled with just as interesting insights into the world of behavioral economics. Although not required to have read the first one, it does make references to the first one that would help the reader understand the analogies better. If you liked the first book, I would encourage you to read this book as well. Some have said this book felt rushed, or written just to profit off the hype, but I disagree with those comments. I did not feel the quality dropped on this book, and I hope they continue to write another one.
Interesting questions answered with thoughtfully sought out evidence.
I was so excited to read this book. I loved Freakonomics; it actually made eceonomics fun and thought-provoking. It had interesting questions, great descriptions of how they got their answers, and an air of understanding that the best economic solution was not always the best solution. I couldn't wait to read more of the same!
Instead, this book felt like it had ADD for the first half of it. It bounced between subjects and gave pat little answers and annecdotal evidence far too often. The joy of learning something unexpected through data was thoroughly missing from this book (other than the brief final chapter... I think it was actually an afterword... about the monkeys). There were things I laughed about in the beginning, and things I found a bit surprising. But overall the book felt like it was droning on and on, and it suddenly got preachy.
Things that should have been interesting somehow were not. The terrorist section especially--it was partially stunted because the information that they were discussing is actually secret for (inter)national security reasons. But what they shared instead ended up feeling dreary and cliche--like it was included just because it is a hot topic, and they wanted people to know that they were on top of it. Ugh!
The preachy tone really intensified with the section on Global Warming, which at least was less disjointed than the previous chapters (In fact, it felt like a whole separate book!). Finally they got more into the scientific basis of the arguments, although not really into the economics. I actually skipped bits of this section because I was impatient to get to the end. In all, it gave some interesting ideas, made fun of Al Gore, and didn't convince me to feel strongly about much of anything they said whasoever. I never realized how important describing personal appearances was to Economics before I read this book, but somehow it came up repeatedly in each chapter this time.
In the end, the monkey bit made me smile and miss the old Freakonomics a bit. Not that it was the same thing, but just that it took a bizarre, innovative question, and found a way to test it. And, the results in this case were also pretty hilarious! It made me wish I'd skipped the rest of the book and just read this little bit.
Instead, this book felt like it had ADD for the first half of it. It bounced between subjects and gave pat little answers and annecdotal evidence far too often. The joy of learning something unexpected through data was thoroughly missing from this book (other than the brief final chapter... I think it was actually an afterword... about the monkeys). There were things I laughed about in the beginning, and things I found a bit surprising. But overall the book felt like it was droning on and on, and it suddenly got preachy.
Things that should have been interesting somehow were not. The terrorist section especially--it was partially stunted because the information that they were discussing is actually secret for (inter)national security reasons. But what they shared instead ended up feeling dreary and cliche--like it was included just because it is a hot topic, and they wanted people to know that they were on top of it. Ugh!
The preachy tone really intensified with the section on Global Warming, which at least was less disjointed than the previous chapters (In fact, it felt like a whole separate book!). Finally they got more into the scientific basis of the arguments, although not really into the economics. I actually skipped bits of this section because I was impatient to get to the end. In all, it gave some interesting ideas, made fun of Al Gore, and didn't convince me to feel strongly about much of anything they said whasoever. I never realized how important describing personal appearances was to Economics before I read this book, but somehow it came up repeatedly in each chapter this time.
In the end, the monkey bit made me smile and miss the old Freakonomics a bit. Not that it was the same thing, but just that it took a bizarre, innovative question, and found a way to test it. And, the results in this case were also pretty hilarious! It made me wish I'd skipped the rest of the book and just read this little bit.
This book looks like it was done in a hurry. It starts out with a reasonable amount of facts to illustrate the points being made then veers off into conjecture. Like their first book, stories that grab your attention, but unlike the first book, poor supportive data for some of them. I kept getting annoyed and if it hadn't been so short I probably would not have finished it. Luckily it was a freebie from a corporate event.